The Heretic and the King: How William Tyndale Laid the Foundations for the English Bible

Professor Alec Ryrie is coming to St Albans Cathedral on Tuesday 10 November for a lecture titled The Heretic and the King: How William Tyndale Laid the Foundations for the English Bible. It's part of the 500th anniversary of Tyndale's New Testament, which first came out in 1526. That was the first time the whole New Testament had been translated from Greek into English and the first time it had been published. It's described as the most important book ever published in English, and a good deal of it later found its way into the King James Bible.

There's a bit of a story to it, too. The work was highly illegal at the time and had to be smuggled into England from exile. Tyndale himself was burned as a heretic only ten years after it was published. Ryrie's talk traces what he did, the odds he fought, and how his book became a pillar of England's Reformation from Henry VIII through to James I.

Ryrie is a heavy hitter on this stuff. He's Professor of the History of Christianity at Durham, studied History at Trinity Hall, Cambridge, did Reformation Studies at St Andrews, and completed a DPhil in Theology at Oxford under Diarmaid MacCulloch. If you've got an interest in the English Bible or the Reformation, this is exactly the kind of thing he does.

The session is in-person only, from 7:00pm to 8:30pm, and tickets are £12. There's complimentary access for clergy and readers in the St Albans Diocese.